precarity

noun

pre·​car·​i·​ty pri-ˈker-ə-tē 

: the state or condition of being precarious : precariousness

The older brother—Dave—raises the younger one, a responsibility that gives him a perpetual sense of life's urgency and precarity.

—Paul Elie

Job precarity can add to a number of social and economic challenges facing millennials including rising personal debts, growing costs of living, shrinking access to pensions and lower retirement savings.

—Arif Jetha

Examples of precarity in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Without addressing the structural issues—corruption, weak institutions, economic precarity—security gains won't hold. —Jesus Mesa, Newsweek, 9 Feb. 2025

This will require a United States that acts in solidarity with others, considers the effects of American foreign policy on people around the world, and seeks to promote U.S. security and prosperity while not exporting insecurity and economic precarity onto them. —Nancy Okail, Foreign Affairs, 3 Dec. 2024

When a health scare and landlord trouble throw his life into precarity, Julio’s situation is exacerbated by his refusal to obtain an invasive new form of ID called Proof of Existence. —Judy Berman, TIME, 3 Dec. 2024

But the TikTok ban has highlighted the broader precarity of social media businesses and in particular the creator economy, which Goldman Sachs projects to grow to $480 billion by 2027. —Sapna Maheshwari, New York Times, 9 Jan. 2025

Word History

Etymology

probably borrowed from French précarité, from précaire "granted or exercised only with the permission of another, insecure, uncertain" (going back to Middle French, borrowed from Latin precārius "given as a favor, uncertain, precarious") + -ité -ity

First Known Use

1910, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for precarity

• alterity
• asperity
• austerity
• celerity
• dexterity
• disparity
• hilarity
• molarity
• planarity
• polarity
• posterity
• prosperity